Melting Pot!

I was doing some indexing this week for the 1930 Census and the page I did was very fascinating to me.  Of the 50 people on that page which included several different families living near each other, all of them had at least one living member of their family who had immigrated to the United States within the previous 30 years.  The countries listed were: Italy, Canada French, Poland, Russia, Austria, Lithuania and Ireland.  What an interesting neighborhood that must have been!  And at the beginning of the Great Depression!

We have much to be thankful for in 2010, not the least of which is our great country!! 

Thanksgiving 2000!

It's almost Thanksgiving 2010!

Can you remember your Thanksgiving a decade ago?

We had four BYU students and they had a fun Thanksgiving together in Provo!

The Soiree!

Hannah had her very first official birthday party today!

It was a "Fancy Nancy" party and it was lots of fun!!

MaryAnn and Hannah had done lots of preparation ahead of time including making these "fancy" water bottles for everyone to have with their lunch.

The first activity was to color and decorate (which means glitter, jewels, etc) a Fancy Nancy picture:

I thought this one turned out especially well:

The lunch included these heart-shaped apple slices and mini rolled sandwiches:

And then everyone got to decorate their own tiara-shaped peanut butter sandwich.

They even got to make their own fancy wand which was used later at the party.

Here is Hannah opening her presents.  She got lots of fancy girly things!

Then we played Hannah's Favorite Things Bingo:

Another fun activity was spinning in a chair and where ever you stopped you got to choose some fancy dress up clothes to put on:

And they each decorated their own fancy goodie bag:

MaryAnn had made mini cupcakes and they got to decorate them to look fancy.  Some were extra full, I mean fancy!

They had fun hiding and finding little wrapped gifts to take home in their goody bags: lip gloss, bracelets, fancy sunglasess and a necklace.   One little girl exclaimed: This is the best party I have ever been to!

It was a party fit for a princess!

Lengthen Your Stride!

Spending the weekend with a General Authority was an amazing experience!   They keep up a pace that is overwhelming to me.  When Elder Golden of the Seventy first contacted Dan he told him that while he was here he wanted to be as busy as possible and to accomplish as much good as possible.

He was definitely busy!

Here is the schedule he had while he was here:

(And he presided and was the main speaker at each one of the meetings)

Friday

2:00 p.m. Picked up in downtown Sacramento at rental car agency

2:30 p.m. Arrive at Sacramento Temple

3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Temple Session

6:00 p.m. Dinner at Harrisons

7:00 to 9:30 p.m. Visiting with stake president to various members of the stake

9:30 to 10:30 Visiting with the Harrisons

Saturday

8:00 a.m. Breakfast at Harrisons

8:30 Leave for Church

9:00 to 10:00 Meeting with bishops in the stake

10:00 to 11:00 "Morningside" with the Youth of the stake

11:00 to 12:00 Interview with stake president

12:00 to 1:00 Box lunch and tour around temple grounds

1:00 to 3:00   Meet with entire stake presidency

3:30 to 5:30 Priesthood leadership session

5:45 to 6:30 p.m. Dinner at the church with stake presidency and mission president

7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Adult session of stake conference

9:20 to 9:45 Restoration of Blessing interview

Arrive at Harrisons 10:00 p.m.

Sunday

7:30 a.m. Breakfast with Harrisons

8:00 a.m. Leave for Church

8:30 to 9:30 a.m. New Member meeting

10:00 to 12:00 General Session of stake conference

 12:20 to 1:00 Debriefing with stake presidency

Lunch with Temple President

Leave for the airport for 4:00 p.m. flight to Salt Lake City

And he did an amazing amount of good as well.  Two of the people they visited on Friday evening have contacted me and told me what a wonderful experience it had been to have a General Authority in their home and that it had been a great blessing to themselves and their family.  One was a recent widow and another has a daughter with cancer.   Many other people have commented on how great it was to be in the presence of a General Authority and be taught by him in the various  meetings.  He always took time to shake hands with people and to talk to people before and after the meetings.  We were richly blessed last weekend! 

Friends To The Rescue!

I am preparing for my first overnight visit from a General Authority!  And this is not the usual visit as he is bringing his wife and they are staying for two nights. 

  

Didn't have the time or money to remodel my 17+ years old home, so I pulled out some trusted friends.

(Not promoting any brand in particular)

All purpose cleaner: Love it!  Get those windows, mirrors, counters, and tons of other things cleaned up in a short time.

Paint: Love it!  Always keep some paint on hand in your colors and go around and touch up.  You will be amazed at all the places you will find that need it and how much better the whole room looks after you do it.

Orange Wood cleaner: Love it!  This stuff works miracles on everything wood.  It cleans and shines up cupboards and stairways and furniture--anything made of real wood.  Smells good too!

Then just add a little elbow grease and you are ready!

Now I'm planning to relax and enjoy this wonderful experience!